Life Imitating Art: Why The Acrimony?

Life Imitating Art: Why The Acrimony?

Tyler Perry’s brilliance as a writer, producer and director cannot be overemphasized with the latest feather in his already majestic cap being the highly acclaimed psychological thriller, Acrimony. As an artist (and I use the word in its broader application of creative enterprise), I believe the famous filmmaker has achieved something that many artists dream about yet only a few experience: the power to provoke widespread thought.

After the release of Acrimony, the man who is celebrated “among the pantheon of today’s greatest cinematic innovators” stirred up lively debates across the world and divided opinions about the two main characters. Was the faithful wife tired of standing by her deceitful husband? Was she ultimately undone by her own deep-rooted anger? Did the embattled husband redeem himself after he made it? Should he have persevered in his efforts to remarry the woman who had divorced him willfully? Would Melinda have returned if Robert never succeeded? And so on and so forth. 

Honestly, I am not writing this piece to add to the debate. If you come to me for such entertainment, you shall sue for a refund of your money. I guess the question that naturally emerges at this point is ‘what now?’ Good one. Let’s get into it. This piece seeks to address an observation I have made following the oddly recent excitement about the movie on social media particularly in Ghana. Some of the posts and tweets and updates about it have been insightful whilst many have been roundly disappointing. Relax. I will clarify my point.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist predicted that “at first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art. Then life will find its very existence from the arts.” Sadly, this is what is happening. First of all, Acrimony is a fiction. An art that is imitating life. Life has no cuts and actions. Life is the reality and the movie is the reflection in the mirror seeking to draw us into introspection of our own lives. Unfortunately, most of us have reach that point where we find our very existence from the arts.

Recently, I have taken pains to read several posts and comments related to the controversy. One highlight in support of the wife condemns all men as unfaithful and unworthy of trust literally calling them (myself included) trash. The other in support of the man condemns women as gold diggers who do not have the patience to help their men grow but wants to share in the ‘glory’. Whichever way you look at it, these statements are rather unfortunate. How do you justify disgust towards people on the basis of a movie character’s flaw? Sad, if you ask me. 

Definitely, we must learn as much as we can from the arts. We should be led by it to question ourselves and reflect on our being for the better. But, it should not be the source from which we draw our existence. Life is the real deal.